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“Curiosity is what distinguishes us from the cabbages:” 110th Anniversary of Preserving and Sharing Scudder Family History By Margery Boyden, Scudder Association Foundation Historian, © Scudder Association Foundation, 2022 A group of Scudders, who with a sense for...

Just as Isaiah1 Harrison, Sr. was termed “enigmatic” in Chapter One, Dr. John1 Stewart’s origins are also cloaked in mystery. In his records, Stewart left no personal statement about where he came from, and no parent in New York or other colonies or in the Old World has claimed him in their will or other record.

When Isaiah1 Harrison, Sr. took over the blacksmith shop at Oyster Bay in 1687, Joseph2 Ludlam’s cooper shop was next door. Nearby was the home and shop where the shoemaker, Gideon2 Wright (Peter1) had lived before he died in 1685, leaving his widow Elizabeth2 (Townsend) Wright with eight minor children to raise.

While doing a deep dive to learn the New York background of Samuel2 and Lydia2 (Harrison) Stewart, I discovered that if one were to ignore the history of Isaiah1 Harrison, Sr.’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Elizabeth2 (Townsend) (Wright) Ludlam of Oyster Bay, Isaiah1, Sr.’s history would be sorely deficient.

In his book, Settlers by the Long Grey Trail, J. Houston Harrison must not have been fully satisfied with his speculation that Isaiah1 Harrison, Sr.’s second wife Abigail was a Smith, for he made an extensive search of various genealogies that included thirteen families: the “Carpenters, Davises, Hallocks, Lawrences, Loyds, Smiths, Townsends, Underhills, Warrens, Weekes, Whiteheads, Willets and Wrights”